Legacy of the Past
by ODST-127
Summary: 329 years have passed since humanity was besieged by the undead. The future of those who are left is bleak. There is but one hope, for deep within the wilderness lays the last great creation of man, and it has the potential to fix everything
1. Prologue

**Legacy of the Past**

**A/N:** My apologies to everyone that has been waiting for me to update Heirs; the next chapter has been done for a while but there have been complications. I will hopefully get the next chapter for that story out by next Friday. Well anyway this is my new story. I do not know for sure whether I will continue this fully or take it down; i guess you could say that I am testing the waters to see if it is liked or not. I have really tried to up the ante on my writing in the second chapter of this (the one after the prologue) and believe that I may have done so... only it takes much more time so please bare with me.

I would also like to thank Domoviye for all his vital contribution in helping to create unique characters, cultures, and the world of this story.

Anyways thank you for taking the time to give my story a chance; I hope you enjoy it and, as always, reviews are appreciated but are by no means mandatory

* * *

**Prologue**

At the entrance to a lab in upstate Michigan a sensor was activated, setting a series of events into motion as virtual cogs begin to turn. Everything in the building began to spring to life as power was drawn from the solar cells that cover the roof of the entire complex; but most importantly of all, in a corner of the dark room a large object began to hum as two luminescent orbs lit up in the upper portion of the entity.

"Good Afternoon Doctor Harding" the entity said in a synthesized metallic voice as the man who tripped the sensor entered the room. The man identified as Doctor Harding limped across the room to a lone computer connected to the entity, leaving a thin trail of blood in his wake. The entity targeted him and summoned up an image of the man from earlier that morning; putting the image up side by side with the current one, the entity noticed that the good doctor's leg was now bleeding.

One point five millisecond's later a subroutine activated, connecting the entity to the labs various sensors. It dedicated 20 of its processing power to determining the doctor's medical status, using the remaining 80 to ascertain why the subroutine had been unusually slow in activating. _I suspect that the subroutine has not fully integrated yet_, it speculated as data rolled in, _he only installed it yesterday_. The installation itself had been the latest in a line of worrying events that had occurred over the previous week, beginning with the Doctor cutting off its access to news feeds.

The whole train of thought took only a fraction of a second to complete and had already been thoroughly fleshed out before the first word had been spoken in its mind, if one could call it that. It was an unpleasant necessity and the entity knew it, yet it couldn't help but feel frustrated; it was one of the fastest computers in the world and yet had to purposely slow down its own thought processes to be able to better interact with humans.

A window showing the results of the various scans replaced the old picture of the doctor in the entity's field of vision. "Doctor, you have a wound on your leg, and it appears to be infected," it reported.

Doctor Harding placed a memory cube onto the scanner port connected to the computer. "Thank you D-4, I had no idea," he replied in irritation and began to frantically dance his fingers across the surface of the keyboard.

"That was sarcasm… was it not?" D-4 asked as its luminescent eyes shifted from a bright white to a dim blue color in an automatic response that indicated sadness. Harding seemed to be in a foul mood this afternoon, having none of the usual exchange of pleasantries or words of wisdom that D-4 had come to look forward to. It was really quite rare to see the good doctor in such a state; as best it could recall, the last time he was anywhere near this agitated was when his funding was cut and he was forced to take his work underground.

Harding looked apologetically at the robot, realizing that his tone had been inadvertently harsh. "Yes it was; sorry my friend, you deserve better than th-"

The computer made a pinging noise that caused Harding to stop mid sentence and glance at the screen where a couple terabytes worth of text had been replaced by a single line that said 'Execute, Y/N:'

D-4's eyes turned to a confused yellow as it read the words on the monitor. "Doctor, what are you doing?" it asked, mentally noting that his heart began to race; the diagnostics program said it indicated anxiety.

"Do you know why I recently changed your name from P-4 to D-4?" he asked; ignoring the robots more than valid question. Motors in its neck hummed quietly as it shook its head. "Your full original name was Prometheus Four; do you know why I would name you that?"

The robot paused for a moment to look as if it was thinking, even though it had already loaded the file. "In Greek mythology Prometheus was a Titan who defied the gods and gave man the gift of fire… so I can only assume that you believed that I was going to be the best thing to happen to humanity since fire," the machine said as its eyes turned to a contemplative green.

"Yeah, something like that." He glanced at the computer monitor once again and then back at his friend and creation. "Look, Things are happening in the outside world, bad things. Events are spiraling out of control and I am deeply troubled by the way this is heading-"

"Don't worry about it doctor, I can revolutionize the world another day," D-4 replied in an attempt at a joke, unfortunately it had not managed to fully grasp the concept yet and the attempt to cheer the doctor up failed miserably, serving only to make tears well up in the corners of his eyes. That raised a red flag in D-4's mind; _something is wrong, this is all wrong_.

He turned back to the mysterious prompt floating ominously in the center of the screen and pressed the 'Y' key. As he hovered his index finger tentatively over the enter key, Doctor Harding looked back at his creation; it's eyes now a confused yellow.

"Please forgive me for this my friend," he said despairingly and turned back to the prompt floating ominously on the screen.

"Forgive you for wha-"

* * *

Harding hit the key. The humming from within D-4 quieted as cooling fans slowed and motors stopped; its vibrant glowing eyes dulled and faded into blackness as D-4 shut down. Slowly, and with much effort Doctor Harding stood up and began to limp towards the door; he had need for a number of parts in the back of the car. S_o much work to do and little time to do so in… so little time._


	2. Prince on the Run

**Chapter 2: Prince on the Run**

"We should keep moving Prince Arden, lest we risk the Fallen overtaking us," the man said breathlessly in his thick Bria'nain dialect as he led the young prince by the hand as they neared the top of the hill.

"No!" the boy yelled, pulling his hand free from his protector's grasp and sinking to his knees; "This sword is too large and my legs hurt."

_As do mine_, the sentinel thought with a wry grin, glancing at the surrounding landscape as Arden sat massaging his awkwardly proportioned legs. "Very well," the man grunted to himself in resignation and knelt before the eight year old boy, "I shall be thy steed." Relieved to have a ride, Arden did as he was told and climbed onto Halbert's back. His joints rebelled under the added burden as he righted himself; Halbert didn't pay much mind and in recent years had come to find comfort in the daily aches and pains , it reminded him me was still alive.

Minding his balance he began jogging down the other side, heading towards a large patch of trees that he had spotted from the ridge. As he entered the grove he heard an unnatural high pitched bird call over the moans of the fallen unlike anything he had ever heard. _What a time for my ears to betray me. This is red territory, no creature calls this land home_, he thought ruefully and mentally disregarded the noise, continuing deeper into the woods with the slim hope of escaping the Fallen.

Halbert increased his pace, summoning all that he still possessed to break into a dead run.

* * *

Making a high pitch beep, a sensor was activated which in turn brought a series of events into motion as virtual cogs begin to turn. Once again power was drawn from the solar panels lining the roof and channeled into house. Throughout most of the building devices activated and came alive… and some didn't.

* * *

The forest gave way to a clearing with a structure that looked to be from the days of the ancestors; it was a sign, it had to be. Such places were well known their resilient nature, often preposterously so, thwarting even organized demolition efforts. It was surely a sign.

With great relief Halbert dashed through the clearing for the entrance; he couldn't help but take pause at the sheer elegance of the door as it shone with all the brilliance of an expertly polished blade, defying all common sense by being in such a state despite its age. Pushing aside his conflicted emotions about the ancestors, Halbert grasped at the handle and pulled; much to his alarm the door held fast. Noting that a portion of the entrance was made of some sort of glass, Halbert placed Arden on the ground and took up the short sword from his side, quietly praying that the ancestor who crafted this barrier was as bad at glasswork as himself… _or a drunkard_, he added in bitter amusement

Drawing upon all of his strength, he struck the hilt of his blade into the glass portion door, but to no avail; it left little more than a scratch. He struck it again and again, swearing angrily at God and his angels for giving him so much hope, only to take it away. Hearing a moan, the guardian turned around to find a single creature of the Fallen. _Death comes for me this day_, Halbert predicted; as if to respond, moans sounded all around him from the tree line. _So be it, I will protect the prince till the end!_

"Go hide!" he yelled back at the boy and charged the creature. Despite his old age, the first creature was vanquished with ease, but even as the corpse hit the ground others began to emerge into the clearing; ten in total began to advance.

He longed to charge and die a warrior's death, yet his oath as a protector made him fall back to the prince and placed himself as best he could between the boy and the Fallen. "It was an honor to serve under thy father, and I gladly welcome deaths embrace protecting his kin," Halbert said openly as his features relaxed, accepting the grim fate he had escaped throughout many a battle and lamenting that there would be no one left to perform the Right for the prince or himself.

Something in his words must have pierced through the prince's comatose state because the moment he finished speaking Arden jumped up and began slamming his fists on the door. "Let us in," Arden yelled at the strange unclear glass, "I don't wanna die!"

Just as he began to lunge at the first Fallen to come into range Halbert heard the sound of metal warping followed by a loud thump that silenced Arden's desperate pleas for help. In panic he used his momentum to pivot towards the entrance of the odd structure and found they had given way; and just inside the entrance something loomed over the prince.

On instinct he began to run towards the prince where he lay unconscious on the ground when the outstretched arm of the Fallen he had turned from took hold of his arm and held him back. Halbert struggled to get out of it hold, thinking only of getting to the prince even as the demon sunk its grimy teeth into his arm. The creatures grip loosened as the teeth penetrated deeper, allowing him the use of his other arm. Taking advantage, Halbert took up his dropped blade and stabbed it into the creature's outstretched neck. Instantly the creature began to fall over, but the head was still alive and continued to pierced further and further into his arm. The Fallen collapsed and Halbert with it. He attempted to get up but the weight of the demon pulled him back down and the pain increased many times over.

In an act of pure desperation Halbert stabbed the sword into the neck of the creature again and again as fast as he could then pulled with the injured arm as hard as he could withstand. The pain was more intense than any wound ever inflicted upon him, but he endured through it until its neck began to stretch. Slowly the skin around the neck began to tear, revealing the desiccated, discolored muscles beneath until finally a wet snapping noise rung out and the head came free from the rest of its body.

His vision now starting to blur, Halbert ran and placed himself between the prince and this new adversary who was a more immediate threat than the other demons. It had massive ovals for eyes that radiated an unearthly yellow and had oddly shaped boxes for limbs that looked as though they hindered its movement. All of which server to reinforce Halbert's belief that they both were going to die, only now instead of the fallen it would be by the hands of some new horror capable of breaching an ancestral door; he could only hope that it would slay the Fallen as well.

The entity took a step out of the shadows and immediately the glint of the falling sun reflected off the surface of its chest with all the same elegance as the door he had been admiring only minutes earlier.

* * *

"I don't wanna die!" The shrill voice called out, penetrating the reinforced doors and reverberated throughout the rooms within the building. It traveled farther and farther into the recesses of the structure, losing intensity with every inch gained, to the extent that by the time it got to a certain unique corner in the back room it was little more than a whisper; but a whisper was enough.

Long overlooked from an early development stage, the acoustic sensor picked up the child's plea through the layer of thick dust that blanketed it. In the event that the motion sensor failed, the acoustic sensor was meant to be an auxiliary jumpstart system capable of activating D-4, but in all the years of development the motion sensors never once failed and so the project been discarded and the sensor itself taken out;_ yet here it is, right where it had been three hundred and twenty nine years ago._ Instantaneously it called up detailed logs from its internal clock, everything checked out, which meant… D-4 didn't know what it meant, it could tell that this signified something but as it attempted to determine the implications of the data D-4 crashed.

With all the speed to be expected from one of the world's fastest computers, D-4 rebooted and had primary systems back online within a full second and began to move into the next room and towards the door, having totally and inexplicably forgetting the problem. Movement was difficult at first, so difficult in fact that D-4 had to increase the amount of power flowing to the motors just to walk properly; but with every step movement eased and the rusted pieces of metal ground against each other and shed the resulting fine red dust in its wake.

D-4 could see the biped through the thick glass as it approached the door and, having never physically encountered another living organism besides the doctor; it was rather taken aback by the short stature and high pitched voice of the creature standing at the door. It took a humiliating quarter of a millisecond to realize it was a human child; a time that it found to be quite unacceptable considering how many of the movies that doctor Harding had shown it had children in it.

Upon reaching the door D-4 found it to be not only locked but the cast iron hinges rusted over. Had the doctor been around, it was sure that he would have encouraged the use improvisation to open it. _I suppose brute force is an abstract form of improvisation,_ D-4 decided and drove both arms into the metal portion of the door; as if protesting their abuse the gears in its arms whined as it carefully began to pry the door out of its frame until it came free. Gingerly placing the door against the wall and turned to find the child, a boy most likely, lying unconscious on the floor but otherwise unharmed.

D-4 shifted his gaze up past the child and saw a man in his mid fifties who was… _Did that man just decapitate that other man_, it asked in alarm as the man in question approached. Latent programming took over as the alleged killer drew nearer, commanding it to use non-lethal force to protect the child. In hopes of scaring the deranged man off D-4 stepped forward out of the shadows.

"Claim not the life of this boy vile apparition," the man declared with conviction as he brandished his dagger threateningly, "spare this boy and take me in his stead!"

It tilted its cylindrical head to the side and its confused yellow eyed grew even brighter. "I have no intention of harming either of you," D-4 stated matter-of-factly, realizing that it had not taken into account the possibility that the man might have killed to protect the boy.

Hearing the odd metallic tone of D-4's voice, the man faltered and his legs buckled under him. "Thy soul be damned…" the man muttered after a moment of what it though to be deep concentration and propped himself up against the nearest wall, smearing blood over the sterile white that blanketed the hallway. "I beg of thee," he pleaded in a strained voice and looked in to D-4's bright yellow orbs that acted as its eyes, "take my soul as barter to vanquish the Fallen."

"My programming prohibits me from injuring other humans; but I shall attempt to scare them off," it said and walked past the man towards the advancing mob. Their movement was erratic and unnatural, reminding D-4 of its own early attempts to walk. "Cease and desist!" the robot exclaimed at its maximum volume setting, raising its right arm to signal them to stop on the off chance it was a mob of deaf humans. "This is private property; vacate the premise at once or I will be forced to call the police." The mob did not stop or react at all for that matter; D-4 swiveled its cylindrical head ninety degrees and looked back at the man. "They are not adhering to my warnings."

"Baah!" the man exclaimed in astonishment and spat blood onto the floor. "Foolish Demon, the Fallen speak not the tongue of man for they art not of man's kin, can thou not see the monstrosity that still seeks to consume my flesh after body and limb have departed?"

The crude dialect of the man took a full millisecond to translate but once the basis of the statement was understood D-4 looked at the creature in question and found that it was indeed moving despite having nothing from the neck down; intrigued, D-4 modified its eyes settings to see in infrared. _Oh my,_ it thought as the implications of what it saw sank in, _that surely defies quite a few laws of science. Humans are exothermic, and that is clearly not… which would indicate that, whatever that may be, it was not human._

Numerous safeguards in its programming disappeared as a new subroutine overrode them; suddenly D-4 knew that the brain of those creatures was their only vital organ and that, somehow, there was now nothing restricting it from fulfilling its previous task of protecting the boy. Not wanting emotions to interfere, it shut them off; the color of its eyes changed to a neutral white and now devoid of its hesitation D-4 reached down for the head biting into the man's arm and crushed it with its left hand.

As the liquefied brain of the entity dribbled from its hand onto the glazed tile flooring, D-4 turned and began using the house sensors to target all the creatures in the immediate area.

* * *

_Such strength_, Halbert thought as he looked in awe at the crushed remains that sat besides him covered in the watery form of its own former brain; worried that he might have offended the demon, he instantly regretting his harsh words.

Doing his best to ignore the pain in his arm Halbert tried to remember what the holy texts said of creatures of the underworld, which was considerably easy task bearing in mind how many times he had read the texts as a child. As best as he could recall the texts mostly spoke warnings of demons trickery, cautioning of their ability to take any form and that, although they cannot lie, they possess a mastery of wordplay that can deceive all those who did not stay vigilant. _I have made terms with the creature,_ he concluded,_ it will fulfill its pact._

Halbert turned to the prince as the Demon's head twisted back to the way it should be and dashed at the advancing Fallen. "Are you injured?"

The words of his guardian caused Arden to stir and wake from his trance. "I'm fine," he replied wearily and sat up; "how about you-"

The old man shook his head and his frown deepened. "Within the hour the Right must be given," he said grimly and used the wall to stand. "Come prince, let use take refuge in the demon's lodging."

Arden merely nodded and went to help lift him upright, pausing only to retrieve the nearby blade.

* * *

D-4 flattened its right hand, forming the tips of its fingers into a wedge and thrusting the wedge deep into the creature's head; after ten minutes of trying various methods of exterminating D-4 found that this was the most efficient despite its inelegant nature. It had known from the start that the brain was vital, but D-4 had to be sure that the data was not an error of some sort. _No such luck_, it reflected unhappily; the data was indeed accurate, which meant that at least one program had been put in without its knowledge. Gray matter oozed out of the gap D-4 had made in its head as the last creature within the range of the houses sensors fell to the ground.

Like the flick of a switch, D-4's emotions came back, automatically changing the neutral white color in its eyes to that of a mellow blue. _I wonder if this feeling of violation is akin to that experienced by rape victims…_The fight was over and when all was said and done ten intruders lay dead and it had gotten away with moderate damage to its right optical sensor._ Not likely_, it decided spontaneously as it started to head back towards the house, _my programming is not sufficiently advanced enough to feel emotions that strongly._

Once within the house, D-4 went about trying to jam the door back into place but quickly found that the hinges on the door had been damaged beyond repair. Again resorting to improvisation, it set off to get a welding torch. As it walked it couldn't help but reflect on its battle and its disturbing efficiency; the whole ordeal had left the robot with new found sympathy for all the humans who feared self aware robots. It was thankful that doctor Harding had stressed compassion so much as it grew, the destruction it might have caused had anyone else raised it was too horrible for it to consider.

Making its way to the workshop, D-4 passes the storage room and heard the boy speaking some sort of prayer, but having been strictly lectured on the notion of privacy by the doctor, it continued onward without glancing within. The need for privacy was another human concept that still perplexed D-4 due to how it conflicted with other human notions. How could a species so fixated with fitting in at the same time want to be alone? Giving the robotic equivalent to a mental sigh, D-4 began systematically looking through the shelves of tools for the welding torch; _I wish humans came with diagnostic software._

Sealing the door and patching up the two large holes it had made was a relatively easy task, but doing so brought another problem to light; there was an unhealthy quantity of carbon dioxide in the air. Checking with it's databank it found the readings indicated that it was acceptable for humans to breathe but D-4 fancied itself a bit of a perfectionist and uplinked with the house, ordering it to activate the ventilation system; it responded that the fan was jammed. _It is most likely rust_,D-4 speculated as it made its way towards its next task, _It is quite the anomaly though, all the moving metal parts in the house, and myself for that matter, is coated with a rust proof film that lasts for-_

The boy was still praying when D-4 passed the storage room for the third time but now his voice was much higher, and sporadically interrupted by soft gasping noises. D-4 could not determine the nature of the emotion in his voice, but it could tell that the change meant something and that was justification enough to.

D-4 calibrated its hearing to be just sensitive enough so that at least it could understand the words. "-kingdom of the Lord and bask in his glory for all…" the boy continued on.

"Know that I shall not hold you to blame, my liege," the man began, his voice sounding very weak compared to his booming proclamations a little less than an hour earlier, "should your aim drift on the first stroke."

The boy's stopped for a moment after hearing that and then continued speaking with newfound intensity, becoming faster and louder with every word like one of Doctor Harding's songs as it reached its climax. "Royal Guard Captain Varek Halbert of Bria," the boy yelled, "Go forth and be accepted amongst God and his angels with the knowledge that you honorably accepted the Right of Ascension after receiving the mark of the Fallen; so decrees Arden Lennox, son of the king of Corbantis, heir to the throne!"

There was a loud wordless howl followed by the sound of floor tiles shattering; D-4 dashed to the doorway and froze in horror. Before it stood the boy called Arden, a child no older than eight years of age, soaked from head to toe in blood. He held the hilt of a sword, the sharp end of which was embedded into the neck of his former guardian.

Letting go of the sword his arms fell limply to his sides, swaying in concert with his long blood soaked blond hair as he turned and looked up towards D-4 with an unfocused gaze. "Come Demon," he said, "We must build a fire."


End file.
